Harger: One WA rep. defied party line over the SHOWER Act, and why that’s a good thing
Jan 19, 2026, 7:09 AM | Updated: 2:05 pm
Seinfeld called it in the 90s, and last week, Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez stepped up for her people.
It’s the “Saving Homeowners from Overregulation with Exceptional Rinsing Act” — also known as the SHOWER Act (yes, that’s a real acronym). And yes, Congress spent actual time on this. It passed the House on Jan. 13, rolling back Biden-era water-efficiency rules that capped how much water your showerhead can deliver. The federal limit has been 2.5 gallons per minute, total, even if you’ve got one of those fancy multi-nozzle setups. The bill says: let each nozzle do its thing.
It passed 226-197. Eleven Democrats crossed the aisle to vote yes. Gluesenkamp Perez was one of them.
Look, I get it. Some parts of the country need to conserve water. California’s been rationing since before I was born. Arizona is basically a cautionary tale with cacti. But Southwest Washington? The district Gluesenkamp Perez represents? The good people of Ocean Shores are not experiencing a shortage. It rains nine months a year. They’re trying to figure out what to do with all the water.
And yet, they’ve been living under the same restrictions as Phoenix.
I’ll be honest with you: one of the first things I do when I buy a new showerhead is pop out the flow restrictor. Just a little plastic disc standing between me and adequate water pressure. Gone. I may have even ventured into the dark corners of Temu, looking for contraband full-flow heads shipped directly from China. That’s basically the dark web, right? I’m up there with Anonymous now. Hacker voice: I’m in.
My crimes aside, here’s what I appreciate about Gluesenkamp Perez: she doesn’t seem to care much about the party line when the party line doesn’t make sense for her district. She represents people who’d like to rinse the shampoo out of their hair in under forty-five minutes. This isn’t a culture war thing. It’s a “does this policy make sense here” thing.
And the answer, for southwest Washington, is no. It doesn’t.
We talk a lot about how Congress is broken, how everything’s partisan, how nobody thinks for themselves anymore. And then you get a vote like this, not exactly the most consequential bill in American history, sure, but eleven Democrats looked at it and said, “Yeah, actually, this is reasonable.”
I don’t agree with Gluesenkamp Perez on everything. I don’t have to. But I can appreciate a lawmaker who seems to ask, “Does this make sense for my people?” before checking what the party memo says.
More of that, please. From both sides of the aisle.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have another Temu order to track.
Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here.
